Jennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerGov. Christie appears at a press conference at borough hall in Paramus on Wednesday. Women approved of Christie 53 percent to 40 percent, a large improvement from the 45 percent to 48 percent disapproval rating in August, one new poll indicates.

TRENTON — The Chris Christie-for-president luster has rubbed off at home.

Three polls made public Wednesday showed the governor’s approval ratings rising among New Jersey voters in the aftermath of his high-profile refusal to seek the nation’s highest office.

Yet a closer look at the surveys — two of which put Christie’s popularity at record levels — shows something else: Women are warming up to the aggressive governor, allowing him to close a gender gap that has dogged him for much of his tenure.

“When New Jerseyans are told your governor, Republican politicians and fundraisers think he’s a real bet for president, that’s got to have an effect, of course,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “And people think it’s good for New Jersey.”

The Quinnipiac poll showed that among registered voters in New Jersey, 58 percent approve of the job he is doing as against 38 percent who disapprove — up from 47 percent to 46 percent in August.

For Christie, the results are the best he has done in the poll since he took office in January 2010.

Another survey, the Monmouth University/NJ Press Media poll, also had Christie making his best showing to date, with 55 percent of registered voters approving and 37 percent disapproving — up from 50 percent approve to 41 percent disapprove in August.

And a Rutgers-Eagleton poll found 49 percent of New Jersey voters view Christie favorably compared with 39 percent who see him unfavorably. In August, after Christie removed almost $1 billion from the state budget intended for social safety net programs and aid to cities, a majority of respondents viewed him unfavorably, 47 percent to 45 percent.

While Christie continues to appeal to men more than to women, all three polls show that gap narrowing. In the Monmouth poll, for instance, women approved of Christie 53 percent to 40 percent, a large improvement from the 45 percent to 48 percent disapproval rating in August.

The director of the Monmouth poll, Patrick Murray, said women’s attitudes toward Christie might not have changed because of anything he has said, but because of what has not recently been said about the governor.

“We haven’t been paying attention to the issues that made independent women feel negatively about Gov. Christie,” said Murray, referring to property taxes, education financing and cuts to family-planning centers. “This is a snapshot and when the national spotlight fades, the governor could be fighting that gender gap again.”

Voters also said Christie made the right choice in declining to run for president by overwhelming margins in the Quinnipiac and Rutgers-Eagleton polls. In the Quinnipiac poll, 84 percent said they were pleased Christie decided not to run and 73 percent said they thought Christie had a political future beyond being governor of New Jersey.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,186 registered voters in the period Oct. 5 to 10, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. Rutgers-Eagleton surveyed 821 registered voters from Oct. 6 to 9, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

And the Monmouth University/NJ Press Media poll surveyed 817 New Jersey adults, including 693 registered voters, from Oct. 5 to 9. The margin of error among male registered voters was 3.7 percentage points; among women it was 4.8 percentage points.

As Carroll of the Quinnipiac poll put it, “Trenton won’t be the end of the political line for Governor Christie, the neighbors predict.”